


Could Harry Potter Be Indian?

by SophieSwiftieSammy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Discussion, Gen, Headcanon, Indian Harry Potter?, article
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:22:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27351166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieSwiftieSammy/pseuds/SophieSwiftieSammy
Summary: It‘s getting increasingly popular to see Harry Potter as Indian. But is this headcanon true to the books, or are there any problems with that theory? Today we discuss.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 6





	Could Harry Potter Be Indian?

These days I see a theory or, rather, a headcanon, which is getting increasingly popular - that Harry Potter is of Indian heritage. There are lots of artworks and fanfictions that describe him as Indian. I tried to find the origin of this particular headcanon, but failed. The only thing I found was that people of different races and nations want to see themselves being represented in their favourite books. I have nothing against this idea, but a headcanon can only exist if it doesn‘t contradict the information the author gave us. So, could Harry be Indian? Today we discuss.

According to the Internet, most people who think Harry is indeed Indian say that he got the heritage from his father‘s side, saying that the Potters were an Indian family that travelled to Britain and made a settlement there, or, in some cases, that Fleamont Potter (James‘ father) married an Indian woman. Could that be possible? Let‘s start with the first variant.

According to Harry Potter Wiki, „the Potters were, for many generations, pure-blood, until the birth of Harry Potter in 1980, but they were excluded from the Sacred Twenty-Eight due to their egalitarian stance on blood purity“. So, the Potters belonged to the Sacred Twenty-Eight, along with other wizarding families like the Blacks, the Malfoys and the Gaunts, who were direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself. That means that the Potters, as the other families mentioned here, were British aristocracy. Also on Harry Potter Wiki, we read: „The wizarding family of Potters descends from the twelfth-century wizard Linfred of Stinchcombe, a locally well-beloved and eccentric man, whose nickname, ‘the Potterer’, became corrupted in time to ‘Potter’“. This means that the first Potter lived in the twelfth century, far earlier than India was colonised by Britain. What is more, the Potters are direct descendants of Ignotus Peverell, one of the Three Brothers in the tale of Beedle the Bard, and I am sure they were extremely proud of their family tree.

To sum up: the Potters are an aristocratic family, who are direct descendants of a famous British wizard and who were once included in the Sacred Twenty-Eight. What this means is that the Potters are British aristocracy through and through. They did not come from India.

Okay, but what about variant no. 2? Even if the Potters were British, Indian blood would overpower the white blood - this is simple genetics. So, what if Fleamont indeed married an Indian woman, whose heritage was passed on to James and, later, Harry? Well, I doubt it. See, James Potter was born in 1960, therefore, his father was born the latest in 1940. Harry Potter Wiki tells us he was born before 1909. Keeping those dates in mind, recall the Order of the Phoenix, where we get a taste of James‘ behaviour in school. I would assume his father raised him that way - he’s a little spoiled, he‘s a bully, he‘s used to getting everything he wants, he‘s boastful - the list could go on. This reminds me a little of the way Lucius Malfoy raised Draco. Therefore, Fleamont was a true aristocrat, following the centuries-old traditions, and he expected James to be that way as well. I don‘t think that this, combined with the approximate dates of his life, could be characteristic of a man who would marry a woman of another race. At that time, a marriage like this would ruin the family‘s reputation. Moreover, it appears Fleamont was quite famous - still another reason to believe he married a British aristocrat like himself.

So, I think now we can all agree that, on his father‘s side, Harry couldn‘t have gotten his Indian heritage. What about his mother then? Let‘s tackle this as well.

As we all know, Indians all have black or very dark hair. No exceptions. Lily was a redhead. So, either she dyed her hair at such a young age (she wasn‘t even eleven when she first met Snape, and he described her as having flaming red locks), or she was simply white. However, some studies show that such strong blood (Indian, black, hispanic, asian, etc.) can wake up in a person long after the last descendant of this heritage passed away. Lily comes from a Muggle family, so we don‘t know anything about her ancestry... Right?

Wrong. We know Lily‘s hair is red. And what do we know about redheads? They are extremely rare. In particular, the gene that is responsible for having red hair is recessive (MC1R). This means that it has to be inherited from both parents for the child to have red hair. Petunia was a blonde, but this happens too, even if both parents have red hair - precisely because the gene is recessive. It doesn‘t mean that Lily‘s parents were both redheads, but if they weren‘t, they had to have had the gene in them - and even then, the chance of having a redheaded baby is just 25%. I won‘t go into depths here, as I am not a scientist, but in short, what this means is that Lily‘s family ancestors all had to have had that MC1R gene in them, therefore, they had to have been white.

And last but not least, remember that Harry‘s eyes are green. Could an Indian have green eyes? Quite unlikely - the probability of this is about zero per cent.

All in all, I think this headcanon contradicts the books. To have Harry be Indian we need to change at least one thing from the books, and this is just not right. We cannot go against what the author says, even if it‘s not clearly stated. We know that Harry‘s skin is a bit tanned, according to what J. K. Rowling wrote, at least. We cannot just disregard the opinion of the author, because she wrote Harry Potter and this is her world. Of course, I also like to have my own little headcanons, but they don‘t contradict such major things from the books.

**Author's Note:**

> https://skarhead.tumblr.com/ - this is the page where I found a non-white Lily Evans art. Besides, their Harry is Indian as well. Check their art out, I think it‘s extremely beautiful.


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